
Qass. 
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ABRAif AB-i UNCOLN 
PRESIDENT or THE UNITED STATES 

cTVIARCH 4t.h. Ibbl—APB.IL 15th,- 1865 



" Tl>e kindly-eirnestj brave, fC'reseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dr'eading^prdfce, not blame, 
New birth of jbur new soil, tie first American." 



-Lowell 



•1 









/ 






Cmtmarp of 

abmljam Itncoln 



c 



9ifarat)am iLincoln 

HIS man whose homely face you look upon, 

Was one of Nature's masterful, great men ; 
Born with strong arms, that unfought battles won. 

Direct of speech and cunning with the pen. 
Chosen for large designs, he had the art 

Of winning with his humor, and he went 
Straight to his mark, which was the human heart ; 

Wise, too, for what he could not break he bent. 
Upon his back a more than Atlas -load. 

The burden of the commonwealth, was laid ; 
He stooped, and rose up to it, though the road 
Shot suddenly downwards, not a whit dismayed. 
Hold, warriors, councillors, kings ! 
All now give place 
To this dead benefactor of the race ! 

From "Poems by Richard Henry Stoddard' 



%^t l^rpubUc 



c 



HOU, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 

Humanity with all its fears. 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 

We know what Master laid thy keel, 

W^hat W^orkmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 

W^ho made each mast, and sail, and rope, 

W^hat anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat 

W^ere shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale ! 

In spite of rock and tempest's roar. 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee, are all with thee ! 

From "The Building of the Ship" 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1860 



From an ambroiype owned by Major William H. Lambert, 
Philadelphia 



<§tit l^txnhtthtii Annibrrsary of tl)p ?BtrtI| of 

Abratjam ICinroln 



uitbrr ll|p auaptrpB of tt|? 

CSranb Armg Assnnattnn 

0f jpifilab^lpljta nnh Utrimlg 



JFrttay, Jfbntarg 12tl|, 1003 



dirtier of Cferctses 

CHAIRMAN, GENERAL LOUIS WAGNERj 
Past Commander-in-Chief, Grand Army of the Republic 

ORGAN — "Andante in A" Henry Smart 

Mr. G. LeRoy Lindsay, Assistant Organic, Baptist Temple 

PRAYER — Rev. Harry M. Cook, Associate Pastor, Baptist Temple 

AMERICAN HYMN («) M. Keller 

Pupils John MofFet Public School 
Comrade David R. Baer, Supervising Principal 
Pianist, Florence K. Wolf 
(6) "Mount Vernon Bells" Stephen Foster 

ADDRESS BY THE CHAIRMAN General Louis Wagner 

MUSIC Pupils John MofFet Public School 

(fl) "Novv^ the Roll of the Lively Drum" 
(6) "Hats oflP when the Flag goes by" Chas. E. Baer 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 

Hon. Hampton L. Carson, LL. D. 
Former Attorney General of Pennsylvania 

MUSIC • Pupils John Moifet Public School 

(a) "Banner of Beauty" Fihnore 

(b) "The Star Spangled Banner" Francis Scott Key 

ADDRESS Hon. John E. Reyburn, Mayor, City of Philadelphia 

MUSIC Pupils John MofFet* Pubhc School 

(a) "Soldier's Farewell" J. Kunkel 

(b) "MofFet School" Arranged by D. R. Baer 

(c) "My Country, 'tis of thee" Rev. S. F. Smith 

ORGAN — "Marche Triomphale" Joseph Callaerts 

Mr. G. LeRoy Lindsay, Assistant Organic 

BENEDICTION Rev. Harry M. Cook 



^ 



Gift 



Centenary of Lincoln's Birth 

The centenary of the birth of the martyr President and 
emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, was commemorated by the 
Grand Army Association of Philadelphia and vicinity, repre- 
senting fifty-one Posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, in 
the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, on February 12, 1909. The 
celebration, one of the most notable and impressive of the 
day, was attended by veterans of the Civil War, their families 
and the general public. 

General Louis Wagner, Past Commander-in-Chief of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, presided ; and addresses were 
delivered by Hon. Hampton L. Carson, former Attorney 
General of Pennsylvania, and Hon. John E. Reyburn, Mayor 
of Philadelphia. 

The exercises were interspersed with music, vocal and in- Musical 
strumental, a feature of which was the singing of patriotic zeroises 
selections by two hundred and fifty pupils of the John Moffet 
public school, under the direction of the supervising principal, 
Comrade David R. Baer. 

At two o'clock p. m. an introductory on the organ was ren- 
dered by Mr. G. LeRoy Lindsay, Assistant Organist of the 
Temple. 

Rev. Harry M. Cook, Assistant Pastor of the Temple (in 
the absence of the Pastor, Rev. Russell H. Conwell, D. D.), 
opened the meeting with prayer. 

The children then sang "The American Hymn," by M. 
Keller, and Stephen Foster's "Mount Vernon Bells," with 
piano accompaniment by Miss Florence K. Wolf. 



Address by the Chairman, General Loxiis Wagner 

General Wagner prefaced his introduction of the orator of 
the day as follows: 

It is to me a satisfaction that, as Chairman of this meeting, 
I am not expected to trespass upon your time and upon the 
time of the speakers who are to follow, however much dis- 
posed to do so, by an address relating definitely and in detail 
to Abraham Lincoln. Others will do that and do it more 
effectively and satisfactorily than I could possibly do it; but 
as the representative of the Grand Army of the Republic, un- 
der whose direction this commemorative service is held, let 
me say that it is to us a source of intense gratification to have 
been permitted by Providence to participate in the great work 
in which Abraham Lincoln was called to lead. As the Presi- 
dent of the United States and, as such, Commander-in-chief 
of the armies and navies of the United States, he was our 
Commander; whenever he said, "Come," we came; and 
through the blessing of God victory was achieved, the Rebel- 
lion was suppressed, a united nation became possible, and 
. is now thoroughly and permanently established. We, soldiers 
Grand 3.nd sailors of the Union, were then separated and scattered 
Army all over this continent; but we felt that there was a tie bind- 
Republlc ^^S us, one to the other, which it would not be proper nor 
pleasant to sever, and hence the Grand Army of the Republic. 
All over our country, all over the world where American 
citizens are found, the centennial anniversary of the birth of 
Abraham Lincoln is being observed to-day, but by no body of 
men or women more earnestly and reverently than by the 
members of the Grand Army of the Republic and their fami- 
lies. It is not necessary for me other than by the merest ref- 




Hc^ cs€^ X-^^ 



From an original negative made in 1864, at the time President Lincoln 
commissioned Ulysses S. Grant Lieutenant-General and Com- 
mander of All the Armies of the Union. It is stated that this 
negative was made to commemorate that event 



erence to our organization to tell you what the Grand Army 
of the Republic is. It is based upon membership of the armies Membership 
and navies of the United States during the years 1861 to 
1865 ; and we are proud to say that no man can purchase 
admission to the organization. It is beyond the reach of any 
and of all who did not serve with us shoulder to shoulder. 
We are established upon the great principles of Fraternity, Principles 
Charity and Loyalty — fraternity to our comrades in arms, 
now our comrades in peace; charity to those who need assist- 
ance and help; and loyalty to our country. After all, the 
latter is the noblest of the three. It was loyalty to country 
that brought us into the service when men were needed for the 
defence of the flag; it is loyalty to country that is inculcated in 
our Posts and impressed upon the minds of those who are 
mustered into our ranks. And it will continue so long as we 
live, so long as the last man remains alive who offered his life 
for the country and was saved, through the providence of 
God, to return home. 

And so we meet to-day to thank God that a man like Abra- 
ham Lincoln was born. And this is the inspiration that comes Inspiration 
to me just at this moment; isn't it always so — when there is 
an emergency, does not God raise up some man to fill that 
emergency and stand between the peril of a nation and its 
destruction? We thank God that Abraham Lincoln, one of 
the greatest men that ever lived, not merely in our land, but 
throughout the world, did live to accomplish the great results 
we have beheld ; and we meet to-day to celebrate the centen- 
nial of his birth. 

I bid you all welcome to this gathering. I know you will Welcome 
be edified by and interested in what the speakers of the after- 
noon will say to you. And when we separate let us go hence 

5 



to our homes determined that in loyalty to flag, to country and 
to each other, whether as members of the Grand Army of the 
Republic or as citizens merely, whether as men or as women, 
we shall ever be true to the obligations we have assumed as 
citizens of these great United States. 

Music 

(In the interval, at this point, patriotic selections were sung 
by the Moffet school children, viz : "Now the roll of the lively 
drum" and "Hats off when the flag goes by.") 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 

Address by Hon. Hampton L. Carson 

Chairman Wagner announced the subject of the Oration, 
"Abraham Lincoln," and said : 

The orator of the day is one of Philadelphia's most promi- 
nent citizens, a lawyer in the front rank of his profession, 
Principal of the law school of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania and, for a term, Attorney General of the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania, our own beloved State. It is my great 
pleasure to present to you the speaker of the afternoon, Hon. 
Hampton L. Carson. 

Mr. Carson was cordially greeted and, throughout his ad- 
dress, applauded. He spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chairman, members of the Grand Army Association, 

ladies and gentlemen : It is an unusual privilege, and one which 

I rate at the highest possible value, to address, on the one 

omage ]^|jj^(jj-g(]th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the 

Union survivors of those soldiers who fought under him in the armies 

Veterans Qf ^j^g United States. I cannot face you without emotion 

when I realize all that you have seen, all that you have heard, 

6 



all that you have dared, all that you have suffered, all that 
you have achieved under his leadership. Your honorahle scars 
and your gray hairs demand the gratitude and the homage of 
this generation as with tottering footsteps you approach that 
dead line that marks the entrance to immortality. 

Emerson has said that it is natural to believe in a great Emerson's 
man ; and, by way of definition, he says that he is truly great ^^*'"'*'o" 
who is what he is from nature and who reminds us of no Great Man 
other man. In those few words we have suggested the quali- 
ties of simplicity, of strength and of originality not in an 
abnormal or extreme degree, but in a degree which, while 
perfectly natural, is so far unusual as to be beyond the reach 
of the average mortal ; and therefore our admiration is coupled 
with reverence and our homage is mingled with awe. We 
have met to commemorate the memory of a great man ; one 
who reminds us of no one else and of whom no one else 
reminds us; a man great in his simplicity, in his strength, in 
his originality, in his power; a man who was born one hun- 
dred years ago and who was buried while men were still alive, 
who had fought on the deck of Old Ironsides in her battles 
with the Guerriere and the Java. 

For some years past, twenty or more, I have been a diligent Diligent 

collector of the engraved portraits of the great men who have ° ®*^ ^'^ 

taken part in the making and development of America from Portraits 

the time of Columbus to the present; pictures of statesmen, *** 

. Great Men 
philosophers, bankers, lawyers, merchants, manufacturers, of 

those who assisted in building up the buttresses of our insti- 
tutions and who led in every needed reform or in the exploi- 
tation of every useful movement. Of Mr. Lincoln I have at 
least one hundred different pictures ; and it is not too much 
to say that the most dignified, the most thoughtful, and the 



most rugged, as well as the saddest face in that vast array of 

leaders is his. A tall, gaunt form and firm set head, with 

beetling brows and eyes from which the soul of an immortal 

Spirit sorrow looks; a spirit baptised in that rain of blood which 

°^ drenched the soil and the forests of the Southern States until 
Lincoln . . . i i- j i 

his heart grew sick with grief — a spirit which embodied the 

woe of Lear and the tragedy of Hamlet, and which would 

have broken beneath the weight if it had not been enlivened by 

enjoyment of the humor of The Merry Wives of Windsor 

and the Midsummer Night's Dream. ' 

I never look at those pictures without recalling two scenes 

of April, 1865. I was a boy of thirteen, but if I live to 

be ninety and nine, unless my faculties decay, I will never lose 

Remi- the memory of them. The old city of Philadelphia, by night, 

niscences ^^g j^deed dark and dreary. Here and there was a flickering 
of old ^ . 

Philadelphia g^s lamp; everywhere badly paved streets, made more gloomy 

by rows of tightly closed shutters from which not a single 
hospitable gleam shone out upon the sidewalk. A more dreary 
or depressing scene I cannot recall. Yet one night, I remem- 
ber, when every house from the Schuylkill to the Delaware 
and from League Island to Germantown was ablaze with 
light; flags floated upon the joyous breeze; the ground re- 
sounded beneath the tread of multitudes who shouted in tri- 
umph ; troops of happy boys, of whom I was one, ran up and 
down the streets singing "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys," and 
"Marching through Georgia," or "We'll hang Jeff Davis on 
a sour apple tree" ; the solid earth quivered with a joyous 
palpitation as from a subterranean murmur, indicating that the 
feelings of the nation, so long pent up, had found a vent in 
exultation over the surrender of Lee and the conviction at 
last that there was full assurance that this Union was, and 

8 




HON. HAMPTON L. CARSON, LL.D. 
Attorney General of Pennsylvania, 1903-1906 



should remain for all time, "an indivisible Union of inde- 
structible States." 

In a few days the scene changed. I recollect that Inde- Scene 
pendence Hall was clothed in black; every block of buildings ^"K^s 
was draped in sable; every house stood with shutters bowed; 
men with pallid faces whispered to their neighbors; women 
spoke in convulsive sobs; children ceased their play, hushed, 
awe-stricken; every officer on the streets had crepe upon his 
arm or wore the rosette of mourning; our daily newspapers 
were bordered with broad black bands ; everywhere a suffocat- 
ing grief filled the air, which as a child I felt but could not ex- 
plain. Was it because the President of the United States was 
dead? Was it because our victory had been shorn of its 
fruits by the loss of our leader? Not this alone. It was be- 
cause the greatest soul of the nineteenth century had passed 
from earth to immortality. 

What was the secret of this man's greatness? Ah, what is Secret of 
the secret of the strength of iron, of the tenacity of steel, of 
the fiber of the oak? You must answer that it is a secret of 
the eternal hills, a riddle of the elements, a mystery con- 
nected with those dim, far-distant times when the raw mate- 
rial was shaped in the womb of the mountain. The secret of 
Abraham Lincoln's greatness must be sought for in the evo- 
lution of family isolation, in the struggle with primeval 
forces, in a life set in the loneliness of untrodden forests, in a 
state of society when men had no strong government at their 
back to sustain them in their rights and when they had to 
hew out for themselves a solution of every problem in their 
grapple with a harsh condition of life and in their struggle 
with a savage foe which still hung upon the borders of the 
wilderness. 



Lincoln traced his forefathers back for six centuries of re- 
Ancestry spectable ancestiy. Charles Lincoln, I think it was, came to 
Massachusetts; his descendants coming into Berks County, 
Pennsylvania, and removing into Virginia. Then the grand- 
father, who was a co-pioneer with old Daniel Boone, moved 
out into old Kentucky. The sad fact must be told : the father 
was a rover, a miserable squatter, moving about from State 
to State in an unavailing search for the acquisition of prop- 
erty. He went from Kentucky to Lidiana and from Indiana 
to Illinois. The mother, what matters it that she knew not 
whence she came? Is it not a sufficient crown for her woman- 
hood to have been the mother of Abraham Lincoln? 

A boyhood spent amid squalid, poverty stricken surround- 
Boyhood ings ; in coarse, low ignorance ; housed in a cabin scarcely 
better than the winter cabin of a bear. And yet the seed of 
that immortal spirit, planted in such a soil, nurtured by such 
surroundings, was developed by adversity into a noble growth. 
No other President of the United States ever sprang from 
so lowly an origin — nay, from such a depth. It is a familiar 
story in America of men rising from poverty to affluence; it 
is a familiar story to trace the bare-footed boy from the 
beginning, to clerk, storekeeper, member of the Legislature, 
member of Congress, to high position in the Cabinet or even to 
the White House; but the fact that Lincoln became President 
is not the crowning feature of his career. It is true he had 
but one year's schooling in all his life; it is true that as a 
Early backwoodsman he split rails for Nancy Miller at the rate of 

^^® four hundred for every yard of iean cloth, for a suit of clothes 
Struggles .... 

and a pair of trousers, as his price ; it is true that, as a flat- 
boatman he had floated down the broad waters of the Illinois 
to the Ohio and from the Ohio to the Mississippi and that, on 

lO 



some Southern wharf, he beheld a scene of the slave market, 

which first drove the iron into his soul. He recorded no vow Threat 

like that of Hannibal at the altar, but between his teeth he ^^ainst 

Slavery 
muttered "If it ever comes in my way to hit that thing I will 

hit it hard." 

A Surveyor ; a Postmaster, with his office in his hat ; a mem- 
ber of the Legislature without distinction except to have aided 
in securing the removal of the capitol from Vandalia to 
Springfield; a member of Congress without attracting par- Early 
ticular attention; finally working out for himself the prob- Honors 
lems that revolved before his mind ; thinking — as the man who 
knew him best has said, thinking more than any other man in 
America ever thought, because books were so few and oppor- 
tunities for thinking were so many — thinking as he rode across 
the broad prairies, where the quail whistled to its mate and 
the red deer sprang from the ripened grass beside his path — 
thinking of those serious problems as to the meaning of this 
Government, as to its power and as to whether slavery could 
be constitutionally excluded from the territories, he finally 
worked out the answer and, in the discussions which led to 
the settlement of the question, achieved distinction by dint of 
his own inherent force of character, his conscientiousness, his 
courage, his intelligence and his commanding position on the 
hustings. He rose so steadily, so loftily, that eventually, 
when the debate with Douglas furnished him with the oppor- Debate 
tunity, he entered upon a death grapple with the liateful wrong j)q„„|^3 
in an argument which attracted attention in all parts of the 
country and drew the eyes of men to the Illinois campaign for 
Senator, in which he routed the Little Giant and, as a Rupert 
of debate, became renowned. 

II 



Now, had his career stopped there we would all say, "There 

is nothing very extraordinary about this, many another man 

has done it before and many a man has done it since." But 

he had not yet reached the full measure of his stature. In 

the great conflict that followed he appeared at the Cooper 

Institute in New York and there delivered a speech which 

Achieved made his reputation national ; and then for the first time there 

First fl^s]-,g(;} through the great loyal struggling millions of the 

Reputation North a conviction that the bold declaration which had caused 

his defeat as a Senator of the United States had made him a 

possible candidate for the Presidency. "A house divided 

against itself cannot stand. I do not expect to see this country 

remain half slave and half free; I do not expect to see the 

Union dissolved, but I do expect that it will become wholly 

one or the other." Time proved that he was right. 

Many of the men now before me remember perfectly well 
(I have often heard it commented upon as I grew older) 
what the feeling was when it was announced that Abraham 
Lincoln, of Illinois, and not William H. Seward, of New 
Chicago York, had been nominated by the Chicago convention for the 
Presidency of the United States. Did then any student of 
our history, familiar with the names and deeds of our former 
statesmen, make mention of Lincoln as a probable great 
leader? Was there any prophet among the statesmen of his 
Jay who foresaw either what he might accomplish or what he 
might be called upon to accomplish? "This back-woods illiter- 
ate," as he was called, "this Illinois ape," "this half horse, 
half alligator," "this man reared on the muck of the prairie," 
"this man who jokes when other men are grave," "this man 
who has had no experience in the affairs of life," "this man 
utterly destitute of knowledge of foreign diplomacy," "this 

12 



man who for a little time was elevated into temporary con- 
spicuousness by his debate with Senator Douglas" — was this 
the man to be entrusted, in a crisis, with the Presidency of 
the United States? Do we of to-day doubt Abraham Lin- 
coln's ability, question his sagacity, or deny his mastery? 
Why, not one month had passed after he had been President 
before his Cabinet knew that he was their master. His Sec- Lincoln 
retary of State, William H. Seward, the foremost statesman **)* 

Master 

of his day and Lincoln's most conspicuous rival, the man whose of Men 

eloquence had charmed the Senate, whose knowledge of our 

foreign relations was world-wide and whose fame was alike 

universal ; Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, 

the most conspicuous of the Western anti-slavery men; his 

Secretary of War, the most powerful man in Pennsylvania; 

Mr. Blair, his Postmaster General, the leader in the border 

States; his Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, of New 

England, commanding the support of that part of the country 

— these men, coming together, assured themselves that if this 

raw, untrained giant of the West did not know how to run 

the Government they would do it for him and keep his head 

and his feet in line. Within a month Mr. Seward informed Secretary 

the President that the Government had no policy, either Reward s 

^ ^ Plan 

foreign or domestic, and that he had taken the liberty to map 

out a plan which he would submit for the President's con- 
sideration and for the execution of which he himself would 
stand pledged. It proposed to drop out of sight entirely the 
slavery issue; it proposed to call France, England and Spain 
to a strict account and, if they gave no satisfactory explana- 
tion of their actions, to wage a foreign war in the hope of re- 
uniting the dissevered sections of the country in resolute re- 
sistance to foreign aggression. Mr. Lincoln had no knowl- 

13 



bilities 
Assumed 



edge by experience of foreign policy, but he quietly pocketed 
Responsi- that paper and, in terms polite but firm, informed Mr. Seward 
that the President of the United States, who had sworn to up- 
hold the Constitution and mantain the laws and whose oath 
to do it had been taken on the east front of the Capitol, 
would take the responsibilities of his position upon himself. 

He was the intellectual master of a Cabinet of giants. Read 
the tributes of the men who did not like him ; read the unwilling 
admissions wrung from the lips of those who did not at first 
even respect him; read the tributes from the reluctant pens 
Reluctant of critics who subsequently confessed themselves as mere 
f c "t* pigmies in his presence. No doubt can there be as to whose 
was the ruling mind or whose the master spirit through all 
those long dark and dreary years. His intellectual power, it 
seems to me, was the first and most conspicuous feature of 
his greatness. It was a power such as that exercised by John 
Marshall in jurisprudence or by Sir Isaac Newton in philoso- 
phy — a power so great that, in stating a case and presenting a 
proposition, the statement in itself was not only a vindication 
of the position assumed, but a logical demonstration of its 
truth; unalterable, impregnable, and needing no argument in 
its support. "If this thing is not wrong there can be nothing 
which is wrong. If slavery is right then nothing is right." 
Look at that proposition. In those few words he gave a 
terse, simple, clear, direct view of the absolute immorality of 
slavery. 

He had also an analytical power in which no man was his 
equal, combined with a calmness and a courage which were 
divine. His firmness, his tenacity of purpose, the manner in 
which after having formulated a proposition in his mind he 
would cling to it constitute the grandest elements of strength 

14 



in that totality of strange, mysterious and incongruous quali- 
ties which made up his sublime character. He combined mod- 
esty with determination. "I am the humblest man," he said, '^**® 
"ever called upon to fill this office, yet I have a duty to per- ^^^ 
form greater than that of any other man, not excepting even 
George Washington." 

Behold his endurance. We have seen the captain on the Endurance 
bridge of some great ocean liner calmly issuing his orders 
amid the bowlings of the storm; we have extolled the pres- 
ence of mind of the General who in the tempest of battle coolly 
surveyed the field, marshalled his troops and threw his squad- 
rons on the hill tops or in the valleys to break a weak line of 
the enemy ; we have admired the heroism of the engineer who, 
firing his locomotive, rushed through blazing forests for a 
distance of miles to save the lives of his passengers; we have 
applauded the skill and celerity of that great commander who 
traversed fourteen thousand miles of tropic seas and brought 
his vessel around the Horn in time to share in a critical 
engagement ; but never was there such agony of endurance or 
such self-possession imposed upon any man in high position as 
that which was required of the President of the United States 
in 1861 to 1865. A storm, however violent, in a few hours is 
over; a battle, however prolonged, in a few days is lost or 
won ; a run of a few miles takes the engineer beyond the burn- 
ing forest ; a sea voyage of ten thousand miles is ended in two 
months; but here was a man who, day by day and week by 
week and month by month and year by year, bore with her- 
culean fortitude the whole weight of dreadful responsibility 
and faced the momentous issues of fate — a man with a divided Struggling 

party at his back; with Ben Wade, Thaddeus Stevens and 3!^!*. *. 
... Divided 

Henry Winter Davis issuing their flaming proclamations Party 

15 



against him, in denunciation, because he was not cruel enough, 
nor aggressive enough, nor bitter enough, nor destructive 
enough. It seemed as if he stood on the very edge of a 
flaming pit, but his head never reeled nor did his heart quail. 
The sulphurous fumes of that devil's cauldron rose in the 
air, enveloping this republic in a conflagration that, thank 
God, it vi^ill never see again; but far above the vapors of hell 
the people saw, growing grander and grander and more ma- 
jestic as it loomed and rose higher and higher still, a calm and 
mild but firm and sublime self-regnant soul that lived for them 
as for the black bondsmen of the South, that lived but for 
the emancipation of a race and for the salvation of the Union. 
Beneath pressure from Congress, with radical editors like 
Horace Greeley and Henry Ward Beecher writing bitter edi- 
Bitter torials which cut like mowing machines at every revolution ; 
Denunciation ^jj-j-j ^-j^g clamor from officeholders and shrieks of rage from 
disappointed applicants; not knowing where he would find 
absolute support, whether from the radical or the conservative 
wing of his party, Mr. Lincoln clearly perceived, as no other 
man of the times did perceive, that if he but waited, waited, 
the plain people, of whom he was the best and most expressive 
type, would some day come to his support. He knew that the 
war was not to be fought out by noisy debaters in Congress 
nor by sons of a few rich men. He knew that victory must 
Victory depend upon the voluntary services of the boys who were 
Upon dedicating themselves to the salvation of the Union, but who 
Volunteers had not yet learned to associate emancipation with constitu- 
tional preservation. He knew that he must sublimely wait. 
He waited, and the time came. The second call for armies 
Second Call was made when the people were ready to receive it. And 
then not from the slums of cities, not from the refuse of social 

i6 



swamps, not from the ranks of the dissolute or the idle, not 
from hirelings bought by bounty, not from hordes of ad- 
venturers, but from mill and factory, from farm and hamlet, 
from church and schoolhouse, from cross-roads and villages, 
from drawing-room and workshop, from mountain-tops and 
valleys, from lumber districts and iron mines, from granite 
quarry and marl pit there poured ten thousand confluent 
streams of gallant Boys-in-Blue, their souls uplifted by devo- Gallant 
tion to the Union, their eyes agleam with heroic resolution, Boys-ln-Blu< 
their hearts beating quickly to the music of the charge ; while 
the winds, heavily laden with the tears of mothers, the sighs 
of sisters, the sobs of wives and the blessings of fathers, 
bore down to the listening ears of that great, silent, suffering 
soul in the White House the thunder of their battle shout, 
"We are coming. Father Abraham, three hundred thousand Response 
more." 

Ah, he was the Father of his people. In this there is no 
cant. He was the same man whose sympathetic heart could The 
not bear the burden of the death sentence of a court martial ; ^^ j^j^ 
the man who revised and modified the action taken under the People 
rules of war by military bodies against deserters or against 
boys sleeping on their posts or lads delayed on furlough ; the 
man to whom the loss of a human life was as a personal 
loss ; the man who often set aside judgments of death and did 
it oftener than any other human being who ever held a similar 
position or who was entrusted with similar power. How 
many hearts of wives, mothers, sisters and daughters were 
gladdened by his merciful interposition. The officers of the 
army did not like it. They sent him telegram after telegram, 
saying, "Don't interfere with our finding, you are destroying 
the discipline of the army" ; and his response was, "This is 

17 



an army of volunteers for the salvation of the Union, and I 
cannot apply to them the rules of the regular service, where 
there are extenuating circumstances." 

And so gradually a realization of the greatness, the good- 
ness, the mercy of the man extended all over the country. It 
was from no spirit of superstition, but simply from a childlike 
recognition of the truth that the colored preacher exclaimed 
Massa "IvJassa Lincoln, he know eberything, he eberywhere, he walk 
de earf like de Lord." That which many might regard as a 
mere childish expression of a benighted mind was the revela- 
tion of a universal sentiment. 

Some saw in Lincoln simply an idle story teller, because 
when other men were grave he sought to be jocose. I have 
read many of his alleged stories, and I know that an excellent 
reason for his habit was given by men who knew him well. 
Reason The deep-seated melancholy in his eyes indicated that the 
„ heavily burdened spirit would have broken if it had not had 

some relief. When I said, in opening, that his spirit embodied 
the woe of Lear and the tragedy of Hamlet and would have 
broken if it had not been enlivened by enjoyment of the 
humor of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Mid- 
summer Night's Dream" I simply stated a truth known to 
those who knew him best. His humor preserved the integrity, 
the sanity of his mind. As a chronicler of his early life ex- 
pressed it, "He was always hewing the chips at the butt end 
of the log or else sitting on the end whittling for rest and 
recreation." He was like Talleyrand in that so many stories 
are credited to him that had he spent the entire length of his 
Presidential term and double that length of time in telling 
stories, the period would not have sufficed for one-half of 
them. But he made a blunt statement of a case with a story 

i8 



and thus evaded responsibility at a time when responsibility 
ought not to be assumed. When a visitor asked for informa- 
tion which he had no right to expect would be given, instead 
of having his feelings hurt by an abrupt reply he would be 
told a story. When the merchants of New York, alarmed by Alarm of 

the exploits of the Merrimac, sent their delegation to Wash- >/^^ *"^ 
^ ° Merchants 

ington their spokesman said to the President, "We represent 
one hundred millions of our own money, we are loyal citizens, 
we have paid our taxes ; and we want you, Mr. President, to 
send a gunboat into the harbor of New York in order to pro- 
tect us from the Merrimac." Mr. Lincoln replied, "Gentle- The 
men, I am the President of the United States ; I am the Com- p^ j 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy; I can send ships in 
any direction that I please, but at the present time every ship 
I have is engaged in some useful service ; I don't even know 
where they actually are; but if I had only one-half your money 
and was only half as much "skeered" as you appear to be I 
would buy or build a gunboat for myself and give it to the 
Government." When that little, gentle Quaker lady who had A Quaker 

received a revelation from on High that the President should * ^ ® . 

° Revelation 

immediately emancipate the slaves, went to the White House 
and told her story, and told how Deborah had interfered in the 
matter of Samson, Mr. Lincoln said, "Do you believe that I 
have been chosen by the Lord to carry on this Government?" 
"Yes, Mr. President." "Well, if you believe that, why 
shouldn't the Lord have revealed my duty to me instead of to 
thee?" When the clergymen of Chicago, drawing themselves The 
up en masse, insisted that he should, in reply to a revelation «cago 
from heaven, of which they were the God-sent messengers, men's 
immediately emancipate the slaves, the President said, "Gen- Revelation 
tlemen, I recognize your mission and your high calling, and 

19 



believing that I myself am a servant of the Lord, I am at a 
loss to understand why He should have chosen such a round- 
about route as the wicked city of Chicago in order to com- 
municate with me." When a sudden raid was made and a 
Brigadier brig'adier-general and two hundred mules were captured by 

versus ^j^^ rebels Mr. Lincoln said, "Well, about the brigadier, I 
Mules ° 

probably can supply his place in five minutes, but as to those 

mules, they cost us two hundred dollars apiece." When trou- 
ble was made over the retirement of one of the members 
of the Cabinet and much difficulty ensued and finally pressure 
was exerted to secure the removal of all the members of the 
Cabinet, to make a clean sweep, Mr. Lincoln said, "Gentle- 
Story to men, your request reminds me of that man out there in Sanga- 

Overthrow ^^^ County, Illinois, who was much troubled with skunks, 
Unreason- 

3jjlg and he went out with a gun and killed one of them at the 

Request woodpile. When he came back his wife accosted him thus : 
'James, why I thought you were going to shoot a whole lot 
of skunks' ; and he replied, 'Well, yes, Jane, I saw five of 
them, I killed one, and the one I killed made such an infernal 
smell that I thought I would let the others alone.' " When 
much pressed by an office seeker who insisted on having 
recognition and who, on being refused, began to abuse the 
President. Mr. Lincoln with true dignity said, "Sir, I can 
Resenting submit to censure, but I will not tolerate insult" ; and then, put- 
** * ting out his strong arm, he ejected the man from the room. 

Now, those incidents give you but one phase of the charac- 
ter of the man. By some they are regarded as characteristic. 
Place beside them his utterances in State papers. You will 
search the literature of Presidential proclamations in vain 
for anything finer in the English tongue, nay, in human speech, 
than the language of the First Inaugural or the Gettysburg 

20 



Address or the Second Inaugural. Indeed they read like in- 
spired passages from Isaiah or Job. What an exquisite ap- 
peal, what a pathetic argument was that which was addressed 
to our erring Southern brethren: "We are not enemies, we 
must be friends. Though passion may have strained it must 
not break our bonds of afifection. The mystic chords of mem- 
ory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet 
swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this cruel Inspiring 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills 
that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondsman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, 
and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be 
paid for by another drawn with the sword, as was said three 
thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " 

Believing then that the people would sanction his action, 
convinced at last that the integrity of the Union was only to 
be saved by the gift of freedom to the slave, he made a solemn 
vow that if the arms of McClellan were crowned with victor}' 
on the field of Antietam he would bless the achievement by 
issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Then in the rapture Emancipation 
of that joyous hour, dipping his pen in God's sunlight, he 
wrote his name to that immortal document which enrolled him 
among the benefactors of mankind. It was a great, a cour- 
ageous act and one which will stand for all time, like the Con- 
stitution of the United States, without a prototype. 

Take the address at the dedication of the National Ceme- 
tery at Gettysburg, on the 19th of November, 1863. 

21 



"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
Gettysburg on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can 
long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final 
resting place for those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we 
should do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not 
consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, 
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far 
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little 
note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never 
forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, 
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who 
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for 
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us 
— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to 
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo- 
tion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a 
new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by 
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

No comment can be made on words like these. They have 
sunk into the hearts of the people and form a part of those 
inspired utterances which, like Sacred Writ, elevate and enno- 
ble our humanity. 
Charadter The character of Lincoln. Ah, if that can be analyzed. 
It was his warm-heartedness, his kindliness, his human sym- 

22 



Analyzed 



pathy which endeared him to the multitude. It was his re- 
lentless logical power, his clear perception, his grasp of de- 
tails, his tenacity of purpose, his sense of justice, his loftiness 
of view and his moral courage — that magnificent equipose of 
conscience, of heart and of brain — which lifted him up far 
above the heads of all other men and which enabled him to 
place his country upon a plane so high and safe that the tyrants 
of despotism no longer dare to challenge the might, the sub- 
limity and the power of civil and religious freedom. No 
voice save that of the Archangel can now reach his ear, but 
his fame and his memory will increase from day to day. The 

When unseen fingers strike back the bolts which lock out his J^^J]^eur 

° of his 

futurity, when this country shall have grown to two hun- Fame 

dred millions of people, when one-third of the population of 

the globe shall speak the English tongue, when the dusky 

millions of far distant islands shall learn to lisp the golden 

words of law and liberty, when free institutions are scattering 

their blessings in every land, then will the name of Abraham 

Lincoln, as Liberator, be on every lip, and nothing but the 

spaciousness of centuries can fitly frame the grandeur of his 

fame. 

Remarks by the Chairman 

Chairman Wagner briefly supplemented Mr. Carson's ad- 
dress as follows : 

For the past month or so it has been the custom, and a 
most admirable one it is, for the newspapers to print extracts 
from the sayings of Abraham Lincoln. My friend. Col. 
William Potter, former Minister of this country to the King- 
dom of Italy, has printed one brief saying of Lincoln's and 
circulated it among his friends. I am sure that the orator 

23 



of the day will pardon me if I add this as an addendum to 

Chairman's jijs magnificent eloquent eulogy of Abraham Lincoln. "Abra- 

J.Q ham Lincoln said, 'I am not bound to win, but I am bound 

Eloquent to be true; I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to 

" °^^ live up to the lights I have. I must stand with anybody that 

stands right and stand with him while he is right and part 

with him when he goes wrong.' 

Music 

Singing by the children with organ accompaniment here 
followed; the selections being "Banner of Beauty" and "The 
Star Spangled Banner." 

Chairman Wagner, in presenting the Mayor of the City, 
said: 

Young in years, but full of patriotism and love of country, 
as all young men were forty odd years ago, the next speaker, 
then a resident of Kansas, enlisted in the war for the sup- 
pression of the rebellion, in one of the Kansas regiments. He 
Ought is not yet — he ought to be — a comrade of the Grand Army of 
the Republic ; and I commend him as a fitting subject for a 
recruit, to some of you connected with Posts in the City of 
Philadelphia. I have the great pleasure to present to you the 
Mayor of the City, the gentleman to whom I refer in these 
introductory remarks. 

Address by Mayor Reybum of Philadelphia 

Hon. John E. Reyburn. Mayor of the City of Philadel- 
phia, who was enthusiastically greeted, responded : 

As General Wagner has intimated, I did see a little service 
in the War for the Union ; I was sworn in as a volunteer 

24 



to be a 
Comrade 




HON. JOHN E. REYBURN 
Mayor of Philadelphia 



during a crisis ; but having seen no actual service I have never 

claimed, and do not to-day claim, the honor of being classed The Mayor 

among the veterans of that war. I have felt that the men volunteer 

of the Grand Army of the Republic, the men who went to the 

front, who had endured years of sacrifice, of danger and of 

hardship, were deserving of my admiration ; and my own 

brief experience caused me to appreciate more highly their 

privations and the value of their services. They are entitled 

to our reverence for what they did in the preservation of the Reverence 

Union; and it is now and always has been my belief that the jyjg^ ^f ^^e 

nation should take care of them when they need its care. Grand 

What little I saw of the rigors of war impressed me with the ^^ 

fact that a man who entered the army and went through even a Republic 

single campaign was not thereafter physically the same man 

and was to a certain extent less able to earn a livelihood for 

himself and provide for his family than he would have been if 

lie had not undergone that service. Therefore, I repeat, they 

are entitled to our reverence, to our help and support when 

they need it; and as the years go by they do need assistance 

and it should be given to them cheerfully to the fullest extent. 

Abraham Lincoln, whom we commemorate to-day, honored 

the men who helped him to preserve this Union for us. I Knowledge 

saw and knew enougfh of him to know that if he stood in my ^ . 

° "^ Lincoln 

place to-day he would express the same sentiments I have 
uttered. Lincoln was our foremost American. By reason of 
his training and education he was made conservative ; by the The 
very life he led he was taught prudence and wisdom and knew grlcan 
just what was to be done and the way to do it. Therefore 
he always waited patiently and acted with deliberation. He 
watched the development of public sentiment, accepted it. 
digested it and then led it. His great success was due largely 

25 



to this trait of his character as well as to his patriotism 
and intense love of country. Never from the beginning of his 
career to the night of his assassination did he once falter in 

Unfaltering devotion to the best interests of our country and the preserva- 
tion of its institutions. Therein he found his ideal, and he 
placed that first and above all personal ambition. One of the 
grandest features of his character was his obliteration of his 
own personality in his achievements for the nation's welfare. 
It was his simplicity in every-day life and his confidence in the 
integrity of our Government that endeared him to the peo- 
ple; and for this his name will be revered in history for all 
time. In this respect he differed from other great men. Na- 
poleon stood for France, but he stood for Napoleon, too; 
Abraham Lincoln stood for his country only. 

It is time that we awakened and gave vent to our patriotism 

Awakening in a little shouting. It is right that the young, like the chil- 
dren who sit behind me, the aged, like the veterans who are 
before me, and the people of America should reflect, as will 
the people of all ages, upon the noble attributes of this man's 
character; we to-day should be proud of them and should not 
neglect, upon every proper occasion, to emphasize them and 
thus make it impossible for any man or any set of men 
to deprive us or those who come after us of the rights and 
privileges which we so dearly cherish; and particularly you 
men in front of me who display these Grand Army of the 
Republic badges should continue to guard with jealous care 
the glorious institutions to preserve which you fought for and 
suffered. 

A true appreciation of Abraham Lincoln can best be reached 
True by those familiar with environments similar to those from 

pp e la ion ^j^j^]-, y^^ sprung. I was perhaps fortunate in being born in 

26 



the West, as it was then called, in a community in which like 
conditions prevailed, where the blessings of civilization had 
not reached, where the people were mutually helpful to each 
other and made generous provision for their poorer and more 
dependant neighbors. The sick and needy were cared for, not 
in almshouses, but in homes. I can well understand how un- 
der such conditions Lincoln's nature was moulded in sympathy 
for the unfortunate by the ministrations of charity and benevo- 
lence. I remember that in the community in which I lived the The way 
neighbors would get together and build a home for some ^ * ^^ 
poor woman and her children who had been left helpless and 
destitute. In this day it is only those who were reared 
in such communities who know of the trials and hardships of 
the early settlers of this country. 

Lincoln was always considerate of others and was slow to 
anger. Of powerful physique and able to cope with any 
man physically, he was as gentle as a child. He knew his 
strength, but refrained from using it unnecessarily, always 
preferring to conciliate and compromise rather than to strike 
a blow. 

Take him all in all Lincoln was the greatest man of our 
age, both in his personal qualities and in his public achieve- 
ments ; and I believe that, as history is written, his greatness, T**® 
his patriotism and his love of country will stand out and j^^^ 
shine as brightly as does the setting sun in yonder window. 
The world to-day is thinking of what he said, especially of 
his declaration that ours is a Government of the people, by the 
people and for the people. We may not be able to picture 
the progress and the greatness of this land of ours in the 
years to come, but we know that, among the statesmen of 
America, Lincoln will ever stand as the greatest and the 
noblest. (Applause.) 

27 



Finis 

Chairman Wagner : The Grand Army Association of Phila- 
delphia and vicinity desires me to express its thanks (and 
I am sure that all here to-day who are not members of the 
Grand Army of the Republic join in these thanks) to the 
gentlemen who have honored us with their presence and their 
eloquence on this occasion ; also to the directors of the musical 
exercises and to these boys and girls of the Moffet School 
who have added interest to our meeting this afternoon by 
their singing so beautifully. (Applause.) 



28 




Abraham Lincoln raising the first flag containing thirty-four stars 

over Independence Hall, early morning of 

February 22d, 1861 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

President -Elect at Philadelphia in 1861 

Mr. Lincoln arrived in the afternoon, about four o'clock, 

Lincoln s 

at the Kensington depot, February 21st, and was there met Arrival at 

by a great civic and military demonstration, of which Col. Philadelphia 

P. C. Ellmaker was Chief Marshal, and escorted over the fol- 

lowiner route : Frankford Road to Girard Avenue, to Sixth, 

^ _ . , Route of 

to Arch, to Sixteenth, to Walnut, to Nmth, to the Contmental March 

Hotel and was then received by the Hon. Alexander Henry, 

Mayor, in the presence of a great assemblage of enthusiastic 

and patriotic people. 

On the morning of February 22d, at seven o'clock, Mr. 
Lincoln was escorted by the Scott Legion to Independence Escort 
Hall. Standing for the first time in his life within the sacred 
walls of that grand old historic edifice, Abraham Lincoln, with 
the knowledge that the political and social conditions in the 
Southern States were daily becoming more serious, more dan- 
gerous to the perpetuity of the Union, and keeping in memory 
the warning of the night before of the existence of a plot to 
assassinate him on his journey through Baltimore, and which 
came to him from three different sources — Ex-Governor Wm. 
H. Seward, from Gen. Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army, and from the detectives employed by the Phila- 
delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad — Mr. Lincoln 
gave utterance an unconscious prophesy in his address. 

*'I am filled with deep emotion in finding myself standing 
in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, the .^ 
patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprung the independence 
institutions under which we live. 

29 



"You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the 
task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say 
in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain 
have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, 
from the sentiments which originated in, and were given to the 
world from this hall. I have never had a feeling political that 
^'* did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declara- 
tion of Independence. I have often pondered over the dan- 
gers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and 
framed and adopted that Declaration. I have pondered over 
the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the 
army that achieved that independence. I have often inquired 
of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this 
confederation so long together. It was not the mere matter 
of the separation of the Colonies from the mother land, but 
that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave 
liberty not only to the people of this country, but, as they 
hoped, to all the world for all future time. It was that which 
gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted 
from the shoulders of all men and that all should have an 
equal chance ; this is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration 
of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved 
on that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the 
happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it can- 
not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful ; but if 
this country cannot be saved without giving violence to that 
principle, I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated 
on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the pres- 
ent aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed, no need of 
war; there is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such 
a course, and I may say in advance that there will be no 

30 



bloodshed unless it is forced upon the Government. The Government 

Government will not use force, unless force is used ag^ainst c- 

° use Force 

it. My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did 
not expect to be called on to say a word when I came here. I 
supposed I was simply to do something towards raising- a flag. 
I may, therefore, have said something indiscreetly, but I have 
said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be 
the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." 



Mr. Lincoln was then conducted to a stand erected in front 
of Independence Hall, and but a few feet from its entrance, 
and said : 

Fellow Citizens : I am invited and called before you to par- 
ticipate in raising above Independence Hall the flag of our 
country, with an additional star upon it.* I propose now, in 
advance of performing this very pleasant and complimentary 
duty, to say a few words. I propose to say that when the 
flag was originally raised here, it had but thirteen stars. I 
wish to call your attention to the fact that, under the blessing 
of God, each additional star added to that flag has given addi- 
tional prosperity and happiness to this country, until it has 
advanced to its present condition; and its welfare in the future, 
as well as in the past, is in your hands. Cultivating the spirit 
that animated our fathers, who gave renown and celebrity to 
this hall, cherishing that fraternal feeling which has so long 
characterized us as a nation, excluding passion, ill temper, and 

*That additional star, the thirty-fourth, representing Kansas, which was admitted 
to the Union January 39, 1861, and it was the general desire that Mr. Lincoln, the 
President-elect, should raise the first flag bearing thirty-four stars to float over Inde- 
pendence Hall that led to this ceremony. 

31 



precipitate action on all occasions, I think we may promise 
ourselves that not only the new star placed upon that flag shall 
be permitted to remain there to our permanent prosperity for 
years to come, but additional ones shall from time to time be 
placed there until we shall number, as it was anticipated by the 
great historian, five hundred millions of happy and prosperous 
people. With these few remarks I proceed to the very agree- 
able duty assigned me. 



32 















COMMITTEE ON CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Organized July 26, 1895 Relief Fund Established December 5, 1896 

O^ranb Army AfiHonattnn 

nf pt^ilabflpifia anti Utrimtg 

Joseph R. Cbaiq, President George J. Schwartz, Vice-President 

Henry I. Yohn, Secretary C. F. Gramlich, Treasurer 



iS^ltpf OInmmtttPP 

St. Clair A. Mulholland, Chairman 

John N. Reber, Secretary and Treasurer 

Robert B. Beath, Trustee Relief Fund 

Richard J. Baxter Joseph R. Craio 

William C. Besselievre George J. Schwartz 

Hekry I. YOHN 



(HomtnxtUs on (Urittrnmal Annin^rBary 
0f tl|f Sirtii nf Abraliam Sjinrnln 

Louis Wagner, Chairman Henry I. Yohn, Secretary 

Ebenezer Adams William Emsley 

Charles J. Bigley C. F. Grajvilich 

Robert B. Beath Charles Reese 

Joseph R. Craig William H. Thomas 



ifflpmbpral)ip 

Representing Posts 1, 2, 5, 6, T, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 31, 

35, 46, 51, 55, 56, 63, 71, 77, 79, 80, 94, 101, 103, 114, 115, 132, 160, 191, 228, 

275, 290, 306, 312, 334, 363, 366, 400, 427, 591 and 639, Dep't of Pennsylvania, 

and Posts 5, 37 and 102, Dep't of New Jersey. 



This tablet of bronze, 33 x 36 inches, is of 
peculiar construction ; the letters of the inscription 
being cast with their base upon a solid bronze 
plate, having the appearance of being independent 
of each other. The space between the letters is 
filled with concrete, reported to be as lasting as 
the hardest steel. It marks the spot upon the 
pavement in front of Independence Hall, over which 
Mr. Lincoln stood at the time of raising the first 
flag of thirty-four stars, February 22, 1861. The 
tablet was dedicated by Post 2, Philadelphia, Satur- 
day, February 21, 1903, in the presence of a large 
number of other comrades of the Grand Army of 
the Republic and citizens. 







The Tablet as it appeared on February 12th, 1909, showing floral 

decoration in honor of the One Hundredth Anniversary 

of the Birthday of Abraham Lincoln 



"With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

— Second Inaugural Address, March 4^ 186^. 



f^O)f 29 im} 



;;.LtL: ii 






